title: Transcatheter intervention for the treatment of congenital cardiac defects.
abstract: Cardiac catheterization has an illustrious history, originating in 1929 when Werner Forsmann, a surgical resident, performed a heart catheterization on himself. Transcatheter interventional procedures have been performed since the 1960s. The 1st intracardiac procedure to become standard therapy was a balloon atrial septostomy. Skeptics attacked this innovative procedure. However, the balloon septostomy procedure soon became the standard emergency procedure for certain congenital heart defects, and was the impetus for other investigators in the field of transcatheter intervention. We will discuss transcatheter treatment for congenital vascular stenoses and vascular occlusion.
authors.affiliation: Cardiac Catheterization Laboratories, Texas Children's Hospital, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA.
authors.forename: R G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Grifka
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006328:Cardiac Catheterization / Q000266:history / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D002404:Catheterization; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004867:Equipment Design; D006330:Heart Defects, Congenital / Q000628:therapy*; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D019736:Prostheses and Implants / Q000266:history; D011651:Pulmonary Artery; D015607:Stents